Our Benchmark Methods and Choices

As is traditional now with AMD CPU launches, we got very little time to perform our benchmarks. By the time we were running with the right BIOS and figured out that our Adaptec RAID cards absolutely refused to work with this new BIOS, we had less than a week left to do our server benchmarks which take at least a few hours per setup. So we had to make some choices. Without our Adaptec card, we had to cancel the most disk intensive test we used so far: the transactional DVD Store test. For all other tests, our four local SLC SSD’s kept disk queues more than low enough.

Despite timing constraints, we tried to stay as faithful as we can to our new benchmark methodology. Remember that instead of throwing every software box we happen to have on the shelf, we decided that the “buyers” should dictate our benchmark mix. Basically, every software type that is really important should have at least one and preferably two representatives in the benchmark suite. In the table below you can find an overview of the software types servers are bought for and the benchmarks you may expect in this review. We add the “relevance” column, as “Istanbul” only targets a part of this market. Very few people will buy a hex-core for print, domain controller or mailservers.

Due to time constraints, we decided to postpone the Exchange and Linpack benchmarking. Their relevance for evaluating “Istanbul” is low anyway. SAP benchmarks were not available at the time that we wrote this.

Benchmark Configuration

None of our benchmarks required more than 20 GB. Database files were placed on a 3 drive RAID-0 Intel X25-E SLC 32 GB SSD, log files on one Intel X25-E SLC 32 GB.

Xeon Server 1: ASUS RS700-E6/RS4 barebone
Dual Intel Xeon "Gainestown" X5570 2.93GHz
ASUS Z8PS-D12-1U
6x4GB (24GB) ECC Registered DDR3-1333
NIC: Intel 82574L PCI-E Gbit LAN

Xeon Server 2: Intel "Stoakley platform" server
Dual Intel Xeon E5450 "Harpertown" at 3GHz
Supermicro X7DWE+/X7DWN+
24GB (12x2GB) Crucial Registered FB-DIMM DDR2-667 CL5 ECC
NIC: Dual Intel PRO/1000 Server NIC

Xeon Server 3: Intel "Bensley platform" server
Dual Intel Xeon X5365 "Clovertown" 3GHz
Dual Intel Xeon L5320 at 1.86GHz
Dual Intel Xeon 5080 "Dempsey" at 3.73GHz
Supermicro X7DBE+
24GB (12x2GB) Crucial Registered FB-DIMM DDR2-667 CL5 ECC
NIC: Dual Intel PRO/1000 Server NIC

Opteron Server: Supermicro SC828TQ-R1200LPB 2U Chassis
Dual AMD Opteron 2435 at 2.6GHz
Dual AMD Opteron 8384 at 2.7GHz
Dual AMD Opteron 2222 at 3.0GHz
Dual AMD Opteron 8356 at 2.3GHz
Supermicro H8QMi-2+
24GB (12x2GB) DDR2-800
NIC: Dual Intel PRO/1000 Server NIC

vApus/Oracle Calling Circle Client Configuration
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz
Foxconn P35AX-S
4GB (2x2GB) Kingston DDR2-667
NIC: Intel PRO/1000